Born in Brighton in 1978, Katie Price is a model, entrepreneur and TV personality. She first appeared on the Sun’s Page 3 at 18, under the name Jordan. A master of merchandising, she spent the noughties making millions from her glamour shoots, perfumes, autobiographies, novels and children’s books, as well as appearances on reality TV shows. She has five children, and has been married three times. Her mother, Amy, has idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable lung condition. The Katie Price Show, a podcast she hosts with her sister, Sophie, is available now.
Katie
When I look at this picture, I smile because I know I was happy. I was well into my career, shooting with Loaded and FHM, and I felt lucky as I was pregnant with Harvey [Price’s eldest son]. No bankruptcies, no breakdowns. It was an amazing time. Apart from the hair extensions. They were shocking back then.
I’m in that see-through dress because I was going out. What else was I supposed to do? I was 22. Just because I was pregnant, it didn’t mean I couldn’t go to parties in my nine-inch skirts with my belly out. Unfortunately, the press would take pictures of me coming out of venues with my eyes half-blinking, trying to make me look like I was pissed, when I actually used to drive to the club and back in my Range Rover.
My troubles with men started after this picture was taken. I saw photos of Dwight [Yorke, Harvey’s biological father] coming out of a nightclub holding a model’s hand. I realised then: “I’m done. I can’t be with you.” I knew I was going to be a single parent, but deep down I wasn’t worried as I had my family.
My sister and mum are my everything. They moan at me all the time, but they are there for me always. Growing up, Mum was strict and I wasn’t allowed to go out, but at the same time I watched her being social and having house parties. When Soph was born, I was so excited. I used to pinch her as I wanted her to cry as an excuse to pick her up – “It’s all right Mum, I’ll get her!” I was obsessed with my baby sister.
I’ve always been extroverted. At Dad’s 30th, I turned up in a leather catsuit. I was only 13. Even at school I was an exhibitionist, and told everyone I was going to be on TV. I knew I wouldn’t have a normal job. I wanted a big house in the countryside, a fairytale wedding, to be a famous pop star or a model, and to work with horses. I’ve achieved it all – and more. The only thing on my list that I haven’t got yet is a black convertible Suzuki Vitara.
It took me until my 40s to process a lot of past experiences. My industry is so fast-paced, and I never got a chance to get over my breakups. The media are on me straight away, and I’m meant to just move on. If you don’t process things, they will all hit you at once and then you crash. That’s what happened to me in 2021. I was breaking down, and the only time my family realised something was wrong was if I did something stupid, like when I crashed the car. [Price received a 16-week suspended sentence after flipping her car while under the influence of alcohol and cocaine.]
I used to put on a facade and hide my feelings, but I realised through therapy that communication is key. My family are now so on top of my mental health that if I go quiet for a day I’ll get loads of missed calls and they’ll message friends to find out where I am. Chances are I’m either sorting out the kids’ dirty clothes or wandering around John Lewis. But I love that they are there for me, no matter what time, night or day.
Sophie
Before this photo was taken, I would have been prancing around in Mum’s bedroom and Dad would have shouted “Everyone, get in for a photo!” I was only 12 and the whole outfit was Kate’s. I always used to nick her clothes. It was one of the first times I had used hair straighteners. They were Kate’s as well.
I had a bit of a rough time at school because of Kate’s fame. It was horrible. I was in my early teens when she was getting more well known, and those years for girls are tricky for girls anyway. My brother, Dan, had mates who had posters of Kate on their bedroom walls, but I got stick from other girls. It got so bad, Mum moved me to a school in the countryside, thinking it would be better, but the bullying was worse, so I had to go back to my old school. I was so worried about what people might say about me that it affected my learning. In the long run, it also made me stronger.
Me and Kate have always been close and have never fallen out. She dressed me for my prom, doing my makeup and putting in hair extensions. Every day, she would pick me up at 6.30am and we would muck out the horses before school together. When Mum was working in London, Kate used to babysit me, so if she had an appearance at a Max Power [performance car] show, I used to go along. It’s funny to think of this huge model turning up with a 10-year-old holding her hand.
There’s been a role reversal in the last five years. Kate’s been a bit more vulnerable, and I’ve had a motherly instinct to protect her and keep her on track, to make sure she’s on top of her diary. People don’t know how sensitive she is, and the media can be so negative. But I’ve always thought of her as a beautiful chaos.
Amy
It was quite exciting when Kate got pregnant – we were getting the baby stuff together and I was knitting a lot. But this set-up, all of us on the bed together, is still what we do now. Whenever Sophie and Kate are here, we have coffee and chat together on my bed. Nothing’s changed.
Kate was a bit sickly when she was born – she had whooping cough and a hole in her heart that healed over – but they were both really good babies in general. Believe it or not, until the age of 10, Kate was this little shy girl. She had such thin legs and would wear four pairs of tights at the same time, and all she was interested in was horses. Boys didn’t come into it until later.
I’ve always found Kate’s cosmetic surgery ridiculous. Her boobs are bigger than her head, for God’s sake! There have been times where she tells me what she’s getting done, and I’ll call up and cancel it before she goes. The problem is that she has body dysmorphia. Whenever she has a crisis that upsets her, she’ll get some surgery, and if she can’t do more surgery, then she’ll get tattoos. It’s her version of having her hair done. I don’t know what she sees in the mirror that we can’t, because Kate looking natural is just beautiful.
My wishes for the future are that Sophie keeps going as she is, as she’s doing so well, and for Kate to feel more settled. She puts on a hard front sometimes, but I know she’s not tough. All I want for Kate is peace of mind and happiness.
